KARZ-TV (channel 42) is a television station in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States. It is programmed primarily as an independent station, but maintains a secondary affiliation with MyNetworkTV. KARZ-TV is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside NBC affiliate KARK-TV (channel 4) and co-managed with Fox affiliate KLRT-TV (channel 16) and CW station KASN (channel 38); Nexstar's Tegna subsidiary owns CBS affiliate KTHV (channel 11). KARZ-TV, KARK-TV, KLRT-TV and KASN share studios at the Victory Building on West Capitol Avenue and South Victory Street (near the Arkansas State Capitol) in downtown Little Rock; KARZ-TV's transmitter is located at the Shinall Mountain antenna farm, near the city's Chenal Valley neighborhood.
History
Early history Leininger-Geddes Broadcasting (owned by Mobile, Alabama–based business consultant Dale Leininger and Darrell Geddes, then-pastor of Little Rock's Solid Rock Assembly of God) filed the initial application for the UHF channel 42 license with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on June 7, 1985. The group—which received approval for the construction permit in a proceeding by FCC administrative law judge Joseph Stirmer on November 4, 1986, later issued by the FCC on July 7, 1987—was granted the license over three other groups: Magnolia Communications (owned by Pine Bluff–based businessman U. S. McPherson); Capitol Communications Corp. (led by Little Rock-based corporate communications director Steve Stephens, minority owner of KLRT-TV); and Maumelle TV Inc. (Magnolia and Maumelle TV's respective cases contesting Leininger-Geddes' application, both concerning management integration and issues with antenna height and possible adjacent channel interference with KJTM-TV, were dismissed with prejudice by Stirmer on June 26 and 30, 1986.) The construction permit remained dormant for nine years until Paxson Communications purchased a 49% share of the license—forming the joint venture Channel 42 of Little Rock, LLC—on June 21, 1996; Paxson entered into a local marketing agreement on August 21, 1996, deal was approved on September 17. Channel 42 first signed on the air on December 1, 1997, as KVUT. Under Paxson, the station originally operated as an affiliate of the company's Infomall TV Network (InTV) infomercial service, supplemented by overnight religious programming from The Worship Network and the contemporary Christian Praise TV. Channel 42 changed its call letters to KYPX on March 16, 1998. Six months later, on August 31, KYPX became a charter affiliate of Paxson's fledgling family-oriented network Pax TV. The station originally maintained studio facilities located on South Shackleford Road (near I-430 and West 36th Street) in southwestern Little Rock. On April 2, 1999, Paxson purchased the 51% interest in KYPX held by Leininger-Geddes for $1.25 million in stock; the purchase of the majority share was approved by the FCC on May 17, and was finalized on June 24. Subsequently on March 8, 2000, Paxson announced it would sell the station to Little Rock-based Equity Broadcasting Corporation, owner of Camden-licensed WB affiliate KKYK-TV (channel 49) and Little Rock repeater KKYK-LP (channel 22), for $7.5 million; the sale received FCC approval on August 3, and was finalized on August 28. The station subsequently relocated its operations into Equity's Shackleford Drive headquarters (near North Shackelford Road and West Markham Street) in northwestern Little Rock.
WB affiliation In order to provide the network broader signal coverage within the Little Rock market, on January 29, 2001, Equity transferred KKYK's WB network and syndicated programming to channel 42 under the call sign KLRA-TV (in reference to its city of license); KYPX's call sign and Pax programming concurrently moved to channel 49. Alongside WB prime time and children's programming, channel 42—which accordingly began branding as "WB42"—maintained a general entertainment format consisting of first-run syndicated shows, recent off-network sitcoms and drama series, syndicated cartoons, weekend movie presentations and religious programs. Seven months later on August 22, the station's call letters were changed again to KWBF, a dual reference to its WB affiliation and network mascot Michigan J. Frog, from whom the nickname used by KWBF until The WB shut down ("The Frog", which remained in use after Michigan was "retired" by the network in July 2005) was borrowed. Under Equity ownership, channel 42 served as the group's flagship station. KWBF also relayed its programming on two low-power translators: KWBF-LP (channel 5) in Sheridan and KWBK-LP (channel 45) in Pine Bluff. (KWBF-LP would move to UHF channel 47, re-called KEJC-LP, in 2005 through an agreement between Equity and the Arkansas Educational Television Network to assign VHF 5 for its flagship station KETS [channel 2]'s digital signal; both KWBF-LP and KWBK-LP would cease operations in 2008.)
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